The making of a CAP...discussion

I'm especially open to techniques as well, for working with the graphics. My computer crashed a few weeks ago, and I have a new one now. But I used to use one of the programs on it to lighten (or occasionally darken) a picture, and I haven't figured out a way to do that in the software on the new one.

xoxoxo

Christine

Christine

I use Photo[u]Shape[/u].....(not Phote[u]Shop[/u])...which gives you all these opportunities...it's freeware...check it out...really simple to use...but quite powerful...

Frank
A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

Norwegian,
I think if I took you through my process for making a cap it wouldn't be too informative. Good picture, inspiration, words using MS Paint. Crop. A picture that 'tells' you its story is the key element. Even then, there are so many great images that have a poor background or no clear area to take text, even after 'clearing' a patch. Plus, I haven't found a substitute for trial and error on the word order to use to get text to 'wrap' clearly in a narrow box either. I guess it just takes time to get it right.

.

So Peakmb I routinely use a work flow
that gives me more room on either side
of the subject in the image into which
I can put the text.

I pick an image that has a relatively plain
background either to the right or left of
the object in the image. See image one.
Notice that this is an extreme example
and later I'll show you one that doesn't
have as much space as this one.

Also you need to decide on which side
of the image you want to add space.
On this image I could add it on either
side but that's not true of all images.
Also notice that adding to the side is
not the same as flipping the image.

So the first thing I do is to crop and
the scale the cropped image. As I've
said before I like to have a finished
image of about 800 by 1150 pixels
so I've scaled this image to 800 px.
See image two.

Then I added to the right side of the
image enough space to make it about
1150 pixels wide. In Gimp it's called
changing the canvas size vs scalling
done earlier. See image three.

At this point you can see what was
added by the difference in color so
I used the smudge tool to smudge
the colors together. Sometimes you
need to use the clone tool or the
pencil to fill and area in.

Then last I used the curve tool to
adjust the color to what I like which
is usually a bit darker with a bit more
contrast.

A final point. I could have added the
space for the text on the left side of
the image. That would put the text
behind her which produces a different
effect than if the text is in front of her.
Look at other caps and you'll see
what I mean.

Hope this helps, have questions just
ask.

.

.

Hears another example. Notice you
need to be careful about what images
you choose but you get better with
practice.


Notice that in this image I can only
add space on the left side as adding
on the right would mean I have to
create the a large part of her body.

I could of course flip the image so
the text is on the right and sometimes
I do that so the text and image alternate
on the forum page.

.

.

Another example.

In this example the original image
was reduced in size, scaled down,
buy the website when I uploaded it.

.

Thanks Jane...

It is often discussed here that a picture talks...so the text of the caption sort of gives itself...I agree...but sometimes, there may be only a part of a picture too...

The following sequences show one example...where I also make place for the text somehow...

Starting with the original...

(cute face...sort of a little shy...)
A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

So I want to cut...using the 'crop' function...and resizing...(I normally try to keep the largest side around 1000-1100)

.
A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

So...some ways to make place for the text...

1) a white square on the side
2) linear gradient...same side
3) a square directly in the picture
4) same as 3) but with lower opacity not to cover those very sexy tits...

.
A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

In the original picture she looks excited...a little shy maybe..."I want to suck that cock too..."

But her expression (if taken totally out of the context of the original picture)...can be a woman that have a confession to make...and makes it...sort of in a teasing way...

so sometimes when I have one idea with a picture...working with it develops other ideas....

Like this for example...

.

on that very bench Hubby...

A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

At norwegian's request, here's a short example of how I make my animated gif caps.

1) First I make my standard 1200x900 background template and estimate where to place the text, then save as a jpg. I use paint Shop Pro for this step, just because I'm used to using it for my picture editing (sharpening, noise reduction, color saturation, etc.). Any graphics editor of your choice will do.

2) Most animated gifs are too small, so I use Gimp to resize to something that fills the area above the text.

Here's the original, and the resized gif:

Original

Resized

3) Next I drag and drop the template jpg into Gimp. Then drag and drop the resized animated gif on top of the template (in Gimp). Before adjusting the gif's position, make sure "Move active layer" is selected, then chain all layers of the gif by selecting the chain icons for every frame (except the template) in the layers tab of the toolbox.

4) Select the "Move" tool and adjust the position of the gif on the background. Chaining the layers together in 3) moves all the frames of the gif at once when changing the gif position.

5) Unchain the layers, select the background template, and under "Layer", select "Merge down". This merges all layers into the background template.

6) Export as an animated gif, and you're done. That's quick and dirty, and maybe not everyone's method, but it works for me. The final result:

Thanks Don...I see both you and Jane use GIMP...will have to down load I think...my PhotoShape does not support these kind of activities...

Thanks...

Frank
A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

This is a great thread...

Very interesting to see everyone's thought process.

I have been around and in the lifestyle for almost 20 years. I find the everyday things which define or remind a couple of their roles to be very erotic. Caps about everyday events should look like everyday people.

#1 The dress and smile look very sexual. The expression is pure MILF seduction.
#2 Mature, concerned and very erotic. The loving affirmation of what is going on
#3 The power of sex and the practiced excuse for submitting
#4 Coming home or going out on a date is the essence of a hot wife.

Most if not all of my work are thoughts/conversations I have had or overheard. I try to find the more erotic element of a scene vs. the "Lick My Oozing Hole You Worm" cliches. Most importantly, art is about point of view, not competition. If you can look at a cap, feel like you are there and know what happens next or can see what lead up to it.... you have something very rare and cool.

1

2

3

4

I completely agree, Greg.

The best caps are ones where a viewer says, "Yup, that happened to me."

xoxoxo

Christine

I totally agree in what you are saying...there are too much too direct 'eat cum' kind of caps (and other stuff) around...(I am not judging...some get off on this too...just my opinion...)

Like your cap no 4 above...mmm....all she has done that her hubby (maybe) will never know....nevertheless....he knows she has been a slut...and she has something to tell...but will she tell it all...(most women tell what is needed...not all...yes..?)

Thanks Greg Martin...


...Or...that's just what I fantasies about...would be so hot if just that happened...



Frank


A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

Setting aside the technical details of making caps, I find the balance of themes and overall tone of many collections could use some work. I think there is a lot of hunger out there for caps that focus on the psychological elements of a couple of nervously approaching their first experience, or working out how they are going to play their first games, and, more generally, situations where the husband and wife are equal co-conspirators. There are some awesome examples of these themes, but they get lost in a sea of really extreme offense and vulgar sex. I understand there should be room for all sides of this on this site, but I encourage our cap creators to think it over!
darslangly

DarsLangly....something like this...?



.

maybe we stay with the fantasy..?

A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

The themes and tone of my caps are all about how I'm feeling that day. L and I both have ups and downs in our libido levels, sometimes from a natural cycling, but these days more often because of work demands and everyday stressors. We also both seem to cycle through feelings of sexual submissiveness, then aggressiveness, but much of the time it's unpredictable and unsynchronized. My caps are made the same way - one at a time for a while, then an explosion of productivity if given the time and motivation. Some may fall into the soft category, then the next session at the computer will spew some nastier stuff (well, as nasty as I get). It's all about self expression - providing an outlet for sexual ideas, frustrations, and darker never-will-happen fantasies. It can be a lot like story writing, except that caps provide instant gratification (and are a lot less work). They're a quick-fix, a masturbatory escape from the mundane grind.

I also find myself pushing to please a slightly wider audience than I would if I worked in a vacuum. Comments, other cappers work, and even an enticing new image can lead me into areas I wouldn't ordinarily go, within my permisteral outer boundaries. After a few years of this and a thousand or two caps, one gets hungry (sometimes desperate) for new ideas. How many ways can I cap "Honey, I'm going to fuck other guys who have much bigger dicks than you."? Most often it's the pic that makes same the cap different, but the lady of invention does drive one to expand the boundaries and push the envelope a bit. Some BDSM, offense (in my submissive cycle), and a touch of female domination are often where my moods lead me. Then, it's back to honeys, darlings, and sweet innocent smiles. Go figure.

The pics themselves? My favorite subject is the innocent, young, pretty housewife who discovers her nastier side well into her marriage. The corruption of the beautiful, pure, and innocent - the Madonna/whore conflict. Lots of pics of pretty VERY young girls out there, but at my age, they're not hotwife material. So, I look for a certain maturity with freshness, a healthy, fit body, and just a hint that she might unleash a sexual avalanche of perversion on an unsuspecting husband of some years. And yeah, I know, good luck finding all that in a single pic. And I break my own rule all the time, if a particularly gorgeous woman pushes all my buttons.

I maintain, as I always have, that people's permisteral fetishes make the cap, not any one thing or capper. I've always struggled with rating the threads here, because they're so varied and appeal to so many unique tastes. I know what I like, but that's a fairly small slice of what's available here. So I revisit and rate the threads that appeal to me, and sometimes regret I can't do the same for every thread. Because of my permisteral tastes (and limited time), there are very talented cappers here who don't get my attention, but deserve every bit they get from their fans. It's a smorgasbord of treats here - just too many flavors for one guy.

Don

Thanks Don for a honest comment...

...and yes...we have all been there/done that...I guess for most of us...making caps is something we do for our own pleasure...but the feed back from the audience is always welcome...and sometimes...well...I just make some caps (which may be far outside my own taste)...just to get some response sometimes...

It may sometimes it a little lonely posting for weeks not getting any response...

On the other hand...you Don is among the absolute top cappieers...and I guess you get more response than most others...(I also get 'above average response' I would guess)....so I am sometimes thinking about those here who never get any response...and how that must feel...

At the end of the day...making caps is something I do for my own pleasure...and one should try to keep within ones boundaries...because...that's where the absolute best caps appear...

The right picture...the honest and true idea...the text just coming so hard...because it's based on true lust...those makes the best Caps...I think...


A cuck to my GF - A bull to all other women

That is certainly true for me. I find myself creating them even when I've posted four for the day, and that's my self-imposed limit.

xoxoxo

Christine

I think that both statements are true for me.
Even though styles may be different our processes and thoughts behind it are sometimes similar

As The Mighty Norwegian said....

...sometimes it a little lonely posting for weeks not getting any response...

On the other hand...you Don is among the absolute top cappieers...and I guess you get more response than most others...(I also get 'above average response' I would guess)....so I am sometimes thinking about those here who never get any response...and how that must feel...

The plain and simple fact is everyone should get a thank you. This is after all free, high quality, original and very often permisteral porn and erotica

When people are not thanked and recognized, they go away.

Art is not a sport.... thanks is better than rankings.

As allways great pictures, Greg. Loved the one with ski pooling a swedish tradition :D

Thought I'd resurrect this thread in response to questions about how I get a certain "look" to the pics I use

Much of the technical presence of a photo is in the taking of the pic. Lighting is most essential, and is responsible for contrast, color, and mood. I look for this in the pic I use, having my own sense of what I want from many years as a pro and serious amateur photographer. I'm a harsh critic with this, throwing away so many pics I'd like to use, if only the quality was at least fairly presentable. Of course, using jpegs from web sites limits resolution as well, to some degree, and if I can't get rid of the "jaggies", it's a no-go.

That said, there is much that can be done to match the look I like.

Exposure: I do this first, using either Paintshop Pro (the quick way), or Lightroom for more challenging corrections. If a photo has blown (no detail) highlights or loss of shadow detail in places I want to show (or in worst cases, both), I lower contrast to smooth the dynamic range (the shades between lightest and darkest tones). This is usually done to the entire photo, but sometimes to local areas as well. Localized adjustments must be done with finesse, as too much adjustment will be apparent as lighting mismatches and splotches in the overall photo. Likewise, a flat photo with no "pop" can benefit from an increase in contrast to make the subject stand out in the frame. In cases where overall contrast doesn't work, shadows, highlights, blacks, and whites can be adjusted individually in Lightroom. Finally, I go back and forth between overall contrast and exposure to get the lighting I want. After all that, sometimes even after 30 minutes or so, it just doesn't work, and goes in the trash bin.

Noise Reduction: Most photos benefit from at least a small amount of noise reduction. Web jpegs suffer the most from the reduction in resolution and dynamic range necessary for a reasonable size. As the subject here is our beautiful hotwives, skin texture is my major concern. I'm a fan of the Playboy style from way back, and tend to like skin perfect. I'll remove small tattoos with the cloning or healing tool, as well as moles, blemishes, etc. Then a fairly heavy application of noise reduction gives a very sleek, smooth look. There is a fine line between too much NR, which begins to look like a plastic doll with not enough detail, and just enough to make the skin look yummy. I spend a LOT of time on this adjustment, and don't always get it exactly right.

Sharpening: Sharpening comes next, always after the NR adjustment. Sharpening before NR reduction tends to enhance noise, which is then harder to eliminate later. Sharpening is a touchy subject with me. IMO, too many photos are oversharpened, resulting in unnatural and gimicky effects. In the worst cases, edge artifacts are so blatant that it's hard on the eyes. I sharpen the overall photo first, conservatively, then apply additional detail to eyes, hair, and anything I want to accentuate. I tend to be fanatical about this. I use a dual monitor setup for images, the largest a 30" NEC calibrated model. I do much of this work at a size that fills or exceeds the monitor's viewing area, blowing up small areas to look for artifacts and noise in important areas. Even then, sometimes I win, and sometimes I lose and dump the pic. And I'll confess, if I really, really love the subject, I'll settle for "good enough". Chances are that once downsized for viewing on the site, no one will even notice. But I will.

Color: I usually adjust color last, because changes in exposure and contrast, and sometimes even NR, can alter it. Skin tones come first. I have my own preference there, and can fairly quickly use overall saturation or color channels to get what I need. Care has to be taken to consider clothing or other objects that are highly saturated or brightly colored that often "glow" if overall saturation is increased. In these cases, color adjustments are done locally to skin areas only, then little or no changes are made to clothing or background. It's often very tempting to increase color saturation on the main subject to get her to "pop". Unfortunately, this most often makes skin tones much too red or orange, like a very bad sunburn or that garish artificially colored tanning gel has been applied. My solution is often to desaturate the background, making the subject "pop" with no discoloring of skin tones. Sometimes it works amazingly well - other times, so-so. In any case, it's much better than having a sunburned hotwife. Ouch.

That's much of what goes into getting the look I use in my caps. I admit it. I'm pretty fanatical about the look of the pics in my caps. And we haven't even begun to talk about choosing the right words, phrasing, line lengths, and overall wordiness of the text piece. As was mentioned in a comment recently, it's really all about harmony in the finished cap. But I'm really, really anal about those pics...

Don

I just stumbled onto this thread. Tons of great feedback and tips. Having done my share of caps, I'm sure most people don't appreciate the effort that goes into it.

Although I enjoy most caps I do think that the artists would do better to group different themes into separate threads, in order to target a particular audience. As a straight cuck, I enjoy caps that deal with wife sharing, but I can do without caps dealing with gay content, trannies, etc. It can be a mood buster to be browsing slutty wife caps and then hit some chicks-with-dicks pics. Thread titles that describe the theme are always appreciated.

Imaginative content sets apart great caps from good caps. IMO it doesn't matter how good the pics are if they're more of the same old boring "lick my asshole you useless, loser, wimp" content.

I've found PhotoPhilter to be very easy to use for caps. It's not as simple as Paint... but still user friendly.

To Jane_fressia: Your caps are some of the more imaginative on this site. But the type/font contrast can be a struggle to read, depending on the color scheme. You might want to consider fonts with more contrast.

Just my 2 cents, and all meant to be constructive pointers!
cuckold - Pronunciation - kuk-uhld - noun 1) The husband of an unfaithful wife. 2) A husband whose wife has sex with others. NOTE - It does NOT say: Sexually confused, submissive, humiliated, sissified, crossdresser, cocksucker, or piss drinker

Text: IMO, the shorter the better. If a picture speaks 1,000 words then you shouldn't have to type another 1,000 to get the point across. Select a pic with the right subject, pose, expression, body language and setting... and it should do most of the talking at first glance. If you need several paragraphs to explain the point, then you're probably using the wrong pic.
cuckold - Pronunciation - kuk-uhld - noun 1) The husband of an unfaithful wife. 2) A husband whose wife has sex with others. NOTE - It does NOT say: Sexually confused, submissive, humiliated, sissified, crossdresser, cocksucker, or piss drinker